All Work and No Play.....

 Who am I kidding, of course we had to play, by way of LasVegas and Sedona, AZ which was not the most direct route to Phoenix from Ontario, CA, but...a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do! We did finally make it to the Phoenix Quilt, Craft and Sewing Festival to set up, but thought we'd show you a few photos from our drive.
Apologies for not posting...really working off this laptop has just about driven me nuts, maybe I have conquered it, but I'm making no promises.

We packed up our booth at Road to California and drove straight to Vegas, arriving to the busy nightlife. 

In the morning we rushed down the strip to Treasure Island to pick up......

these!!!!!  Our show tickets for Monday night......

Once we had our "assigned seats" we began our walk....okay more like marathon hiking through the various hotels/casinos to view the sights.  First stop The Wynn, fabulous decorating for the Chinese New Year...The Year of the Horse.  These pretty guys were all made of flowers, with the wonderful floral balls (below) hanging in the trees.  It was very hard to know where to look, up at the wonderful arrangements or at the fanciful mosaic's on the floor.  I don't chew gum and walk well at the same time...you can picture the rest can't you?

 From there we headed to The Venetian and the legendary gondoliers, what took my breath away was the ceiling, wish I could have found that photo.

They also had decorated to commemorate the Chinese New Year.

 Next stop was Caesars...

 It was back to MGM Grand where we were staying to recoup and play a little on the penny slots....that didn't last long...I'm too cheap to do that for long.  We then began our trip back down the strip to TI to see the show.

 Stopped to watch the volcano go off at the Mirage....couldn't help it.....

 After Mystere we tried to hoof it as quickly as possible to watch the fountains at the Bellagio....didn't quite make it to the street level, had a pretty good view from the upper floor so to speak.  Then we headed down to the Conservatory to see there display.

 This display stopped me in my tracks....look at those wonderful Chihuly flowers.

That's all folks, it was a long walk back to MGM and our beds....I heard someone say that you cannot go to bed before 3 AM in Vegas....well it was 3AM my time when the lights got turned off.

Set Up Day at Road to California....

Really we have a 7:30 AM dock time for set up...that means waking a 5 AM in Barstow in order to drive into Ontario, CA..

My first problem was the shower....the tip off should have been the curved wall when we walked in....but no, I did not look too close at anything....we were so hungry and tired that nothing else registered.

 From this view it looks okay.....but

 Kristin went first and all I heard was hysterical laughter coming from the "POD"..... she came out and said "just wait"....I knew instantly what that meant....a shower head that might be mounted at my chin or lower...okay folks I know I'm tall, but for heavens sake give me a break.  I'm too old for morning aerobics just to wash my hair.

Finally out the door and on our way...this is a pic of before the " ____" of dawn...

Truly watching the sun coming up in an enviroment not your usual really has an affect on you.  The colors were astounding as we drove toward Ontario which is outside of Los Angeles...Kristin couldn't really look around cause of the traffic and downhill grade...not me...I was clicking away.

 As we begin setting up we were stopped in our tracks by the trees inside the building, okay "tent....we are in the Pavillion...which was erected in the parking lot of the Ontario Convention Center...I did keep looking for birds.

 Done enough to call it a day....what do you think?

 Stop by and say hi if you are in the area, we would love to meet you!

On the Road Again.....

Guess I sort of fell off the wagon...we got so busy that I "forgot" to post.  In the mean time we have been down to West Palm Beach to vend at the Mancuso show.  Thanks to everyone who visited with us down there.  Now our wheels are rolling again...
Just a tad bit full....we don't open the back end very often as we travel....at night we pull out a couple of small bags and hope nothing SHIFTS!

The first day out we were both brain dead so no pics from our first few states...we woke up once we left Elk City, OK and headed west once more.  You know you are in the western part of this country of ours when this is what you see for hours.

We had a goal, Albuquerque, NM for lunch.  My taste buds were set on a hamburger with green chilies at Blake's Lotaburger, this has been the plan since October when we had them on our way out to Pacific International in Santa Clara, CA.....but

 The people going in and out of the place below which was right next door was amazing...however I just couldn't give up on my green chilie burger....so we finished and went next door to see what all the excitement was about.  Funny thing happened, a bag just came back to the car with us...we really didn't eat it...at that time...

Back on the road again I was struck by all the abandoned buildings

 

As night fell we continued to drive and drive and drive.....as the sun began to set I just couldn't stop taking photos...until of course I got behind the wheel in Kingman, AZ to drive the remainder of the way to our bed for the night in Barstow, CA....where we got to eat what was in that bag.  It was the best Texas barbeque I've had in a long, long time.  

 

Lights out...Good night Moon!
Please excuse the crazy look of this post I will try to fix it before the next on.

Just in case you missed it.....

Just in case you couldn't listen live today to the radio show with Pat Sloan here is the link:

Creative Talk Network with Pat Sloan

Just scroll down till you see this image and click on that white Quilting Podcast button to hear the segment!

American Patchwork & Quilting Radio with Pat Sloan TODAY at 4PM EST!!

We know, we know......it has been over a week since we posted a blog.  We ran away to the West Palm Beach, FL quilt show last week and got so busy that we couldn't post.  

However, today is the day that we will be on American Patchwork & Quilting with Pat Sloan!  She found us in Houston when she spotted our burlap.  Pat loved our color palette as most that she has seen is all in the natural color.  She invited us to be on the radio show and today is it.

4PM EST in the second segment!

Follow the link and click on the Live on Air button to listen to the show.

Studio Time, Well Sort of.....

We made a couple of new examples to send to the "distributor" to show what can be done with our hand-dyed burlap.  Thought everyone might like a glimpse too!  Here is another version of our Wine Gift Bag, we showed the first version in a blog post on November 17th embellished with a felted fall leaf, this one is embellished with Wool Pennies from In the Patch Designs...they sure did make a cute floral design.  Instead of cording handles these are simply made from a cut of matching burlap.   Makes a great hostess gift, very quick and the embellishment can be personalized.

 After also making another burlap Christmas stocking it was time to have a bit of "creative fun", so......I decided a little floral collage would be a great way to show how all our different products "play" together.  I quickly cut and "plopped" things down, then I took a quick pic to see how the placements looked.  Sometimes you are just too close and a photo lets you get a different perspective, it also ensures you can "remember" where you had placed everything when you move it and things fall off....oh yes let me tell you that was a hard lessoned learned AND it took several reminders.

 A simple quilted background or "mat" is such a great way to mount little pieces like this, not only does it enhance the small work, it gives it presence.  This technique is from Jean Wells book Intuitive Color & Design, she calls it a portrait finish.  At the time I read her book I was doing small embroidered pieces that I actually framed, problem was that didn't let me present it as a "quilt", this technique brought it back into the quilt world.  The "quilted mat" is one of our hand-dyed Kona fat quarters.

 The large flowers are done from our hand-dyed cheesecloth, the small flowers are our silk cocoons and carrier rods.

This just shows you got to grab a little "creative" time whenever and however you can and enjoy it!